SEQUENCE-ANALYSIS OF A 62-KB REGION OVERLAPPING THE HUMAN KLRC CLUSTER OF GENES

The NKG2 family of genes (HGMW-approved symbol KLRC) contains at least four members (NKG2-A, -C, -E, and -F) which are localized to human ch romosome 12p12.3-p13.2. This region, called the natural killer (NK) co mplex, encodes for lectin-like genes preferentially expressed on NK ce lls. One of them, the human CD94 gene (HGMW-approved symbol KLRD1), en codes for a protein that has been shown to be covalently associated wi th the NKG2-A molecule. In this report, we showed that the NKG2 and CD 94 genes are localized in a small region (<350 kb) and we mapped them in the following order: (NKG2-C/NKG2-A)/NKG2-E/NKG2-F/NKG2-D/CD94. Seq uence analysis of 62 kb spanning the NKG2-A, -E, -F, and -D loci allow ed the identification of two LINE elements that could have been involv ed in the duplication of the NKG2 genes. Presence of one MIR and one L 1ME2 element at homologous positions in the NKG2-A and NKG2-F genes is consistent with the existence of rodent NKG2 gene(s). Finally, we map ped the 5'-ends of the NKG2-A transcripts into two separate regions sh owing the existence of two separate transcriptional control regions up stream of the NKG2-A locus and defining putative promoter elements for these genes. (C) 1998 Academic Press.